Kanye West sparked outrage after wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “White Lives Matter” during his YZY SZN 9 fashion show at Paris Fashion Week on Monday.
The Anti-Defamation League classifies the phrase as a hate speech. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, White Lives Matter is a neo-Nazi group that was created as “a racist response to the Black Lives Matter civil rights movement.”
Wanda Cooper-Jones, the mother of the late Ahmaud Arbery, called out the rapper and fashion designer for helping to “legitimize extremist behaviour” with the viral incident.
In February 2020, Arbery was assassinated in a hate crime while jogging through the neighborhood of Satilla Shores in Georgia after three white men chased and shot him.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Cooper-Jones expressed her “extreme disappointment” regarding West. behavioradding that the stunt made a mockery of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“As a result of his display ‘White Lives Matter’ began to trend in the US, which would direct support and legitimize extremist behavior, [much] like the behavior that took her son’s life,” Cooper-Jones said through her attorney Lee Merritt. “This is what Wanda and families like hers continue to struggle with.”
The statement continued: “This mockery of the Black Lives Matter movement and their now denunciation of the movement as some kind of hoax flies right in the face. [of what he’s said]. It’s confusing for her, it’s confusing for the families to receive their support in private, but publicly push us all back.”
Amid the wave of backlash over the controversial T-shirt, West, who last year legally changed his name to Ye, posted and deleted a series of messages Tuesday morning on his Instagram to address the criticism, including a post in which the BLM movement was a “scam”. “
“Everyone knows Black Lives Matter was a scam. Now it’s over. Welcome,” he wrote.
He also ignited criticism by posing for a photo next to a conservative commentator Candace Owens, who also wore the same white shirt.
Some of the models on the runway at Ye’s show also wore T-shirts with the same message, The Guardian reported.
Ye had previously lent his support to Arbery’s family by covering their legal fees in the family’s quest for justice after father and son Greg McMichael and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan were stalked and murdered the unarmed black runner.
In June 2020, Ye also donated $2 million to the families of Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd.
